Getting active in online communities is a good way of expanding your blog network. However, you need to expand through the right communities for your business or niche.

This involves not only choosing relevant online communities, but those that contain like-minded people – people who will benefit from your content and those who are more likely to digest and share your posts.

Online communities that might be beneficial to you are not hard to find. In fact, here are 10 of the most popular that you can start participating in right away.

1. Google Plus Communities

Google Plus is fast becoming a superpower in social networking. Since it is owned by the biggest search engine, it helps to improve ranking in Google search, as well as having a thriving in-house community platform – Google Communities.

You can join groups of like-minded people and begin engaging almost instantaneously. Take note of the rules of each community you join – most do not like spam and will quickly delete your post or membership if you’re only there to spread links.

2. Facebook Groups

Facebook allows people to set up groups (different to Facebook pages), where people can join if they have an interest in a topic. If you’re a technology blogger, for instance, you could join tech groups and have access to a platform where you can extend your blog reach with similar bloggers.

There are two types of Facebook groups – open and closed. Closed require membership to be moderated and usually have post moderation too, in order to avoid spammers.

3. LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups function similarly to Facebook groups, covering a range of topics and interests. As LinkedIn has a user base made up solely of professionals, the content you share in LinkedIn groups should be tailored accordingly and be positioned to a working audience.

I think there is plenty room for LinkedIn to improve their online community features, but because it is such a large and established platform, it simply can’t be ignored.

4. WarriorForum

WarriorForum is great for those looking to develop and optimise their blog, plus learn blogging strategies. It’s slightly different in that it is a forum made up of a loyal user base who are happy to help others.

It is a great source of help and a valuable learning resource for the internet marketing and related industries. You will find that most of the established professionals in these niches are visible on WarriorForum in some way or another, be it to listen to the community, actively participate in discussions, or advertise and promote related products.

5. Triberr

Triberr is an online community that operates more as an amplification platform for your content. People join relevant sub-groups called “Tribes” and help each other by sharing relevant content to their own social audiences.

Many established bloggers are members of Triberr and the reciprocation value is extremely high. I also like to use Triberr as one of my main platforms for content curation, mainly because the typical quality of content is strong.

7. Social Buzz Club

Social Buzz Club was designed to help people to share each others’ content by rewarding active users. It’s set up in a way that people earn points for sharing posts, which encourages them to be unselfish.

This is one of the online communities that is often reciprocal in style. So if you share someone’s post, they’re more likely to share your posts. It does lead to getting your blog out to thousands of other people without doing much heavy lifting.

9. Klinkk

Recent new features include Awards and Karma Wrangler – a secure way to get more engagement in Klinkk blogging community by forcing users to engage before submitting their own articles.

10. Blokube

Blokube

Upcoming features on Blokube include sections for Jobs and Deals.

Start Using Online Communities

There are many online communities out there. Most people will know about Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups, but there are many other options worth exploring. Not only will you start to promote your content to wider audiences, but you will also build an extended network of fellow bloggers and industry professionals.

Online communities are a great resource for bloggers and businesses alike to help expand blog networks, increase traffic and to boost content sharing and engagement.

About AuthorStuartJDavidson

Stuart is a digital marketing strategist living in Kent, UK. Stuart blogs at StuartJDavidson.com where he shares his extensive freelance and corporate marketing experiences. He is also the author of "How to Win in Social Media".

I agree with you.
Joining and above all, participating actively to blogging communities really give many benefits.
Not only in terms of targeted traffic, but you can also build new connections with influential people within your niche.

I really appreciate your mention of Klinkk.
And I thank you for being active there.
It’s a big pleasure to have you (I say this sincerely).

Wow! Love your world map Stuart 🙂 Thanks os much for the mention. I love all the other communities. I look forward to your follow up list as well, since I am looking for ways to become part of more communities.

Cheers Jane! The world map is actually extremely detailed when you look at the original image really close up – kudos to the creator Jay Simons.

suzy spring

Hi stuart, I am already in 4 communities that you are mentioned above. I joined warrior forum last week and it was really usefull to know lots of detials. And know I am trying the remaining one. Waiting for more!

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